Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1887-10-14
THE MORAL OF LIFE.
REV. MR.. uLMAN's SERMON TO OLD FOLKS
LAST SUNDAY MORNING

LAST SUNDAY MORNING.
The Rev. Mr.. lllman's sermon for old
people last Sunday morning was delivered
TO a congregation which filled the church.
and among those present were many bowed
and aged heads Mr. lllman read for the
scripture lesson the second chapter Of Luke,
and his text was from the passage which
records the incident Of the aged Simeon
taking the infant Jesus in his arms and
saying Lord, now lettest thou thy servant
depart in peace, for mine eyes have seen
thy salvation. Simeon, the speaker said
was only one Of the many old people Of his
day. Plate was neither better nor worse
than a hundred or II thousand other Roman
officers. The disciples were only ordinary
men Of their time. In our own day, leav-
ing out II few very good and few very
bad lives we all belong in heap together
50 far as what life means b Us or accom-
plishes for us is concerned. And SO Slime
on's life may be- taken as typical Of most
lives. He was looking for the consolation
of Israel and all Of Us from childhood to
old age are looking forward 10 some end
gained, some good thing achieved, some
good time coming which never quite comes
Simeon himself did not really see the con-
ISOLATION Of Israel he only saw and held in
grow up and be the nations deliyerer.
Hope is a native endowment Of the soul
Life is a continuous waiting and looking
for something and this is not of ourselves
1t is the gift Of God. Our plans seem as
We look back to have been furnished for us
in superabundance just as God clothes the
apple trees in spring with so many more
blossoms than can ever cone to maturity
In childhood We look eagerly forward to
some event of fancied Importance, 10 the
holidays, to the nations birthday, 10 the
visit of some friend, to our own birthday :
IN youth our hopes are fixed on the rapidly
approaching years of maturity as men
and women We have always some mountain
peak IN view-a home to make "a fortune
to gain, some attainment in art or cultiva-
ton. And as we cross the boundary line
which carries us ON into our declining wears
our forward looking is no less confident :;
we see coming time Of rest when we NAV
drop the fret and burden and care Of life
and take our ease in rest and uuietness
But death finds most of US with the har-
ness on, and 1t is good thing that it is so.
Few men or women live to time " hen
their lives seem complete The speaker
had seen some persons who had rounded
everyt thing up and made their lives ready
now he was in doubt 1t is the natural
law, the law Of God, that to most men the
call which no man may refuse to answer
shall come when he is in the midst of things.
when everything is III motion and unfnish-
ed, when his business needs him, his fam
lly need him, the community aud this great
work and that good work need him Few
reach the end without feeling of not hav-
ing attained what they most wish OF most
believe in. Lifes end is but glimpse Of a
beginning. We live and die in the grasp
OF tins earnest, never failing hope with
which God has endowed us
But life is not all waiting and looking
restless hurrying on. The man who saws
that life is but burden and "A gloomy vale
of woe Is dyspeptic and not To he listentd
TO he is not in his native healthy mood of
mind. The real fact is that we all get well
paid as we 20 along. Look your lives
squarely in the face, count up your bless
ings, and say if you have not got all YOU
deserved The single half hour at the end
of the day with home and friends and com
panionship around us is in itself good paw
for the days work. You may not have
achieved wealth hard work, and sorrow
and anxiety may have been your portion,
but stlll you have had enough to make life
NNiA WI III liNlnE. AIbl uoes not mean our
pleasures to be anything more than salt in
our llves-something to give them flavor.
Many are the regrets over the mistakes
and the failures Of life over lives misspent
or only half lived, but the moral of every
life seems to be summed up in this IF l
could live my life over again would live it
IN loftier and nobler fashion" No life is
all failure no life has been altogether mis-
spent if it has come To this feeling, if it has
given birth to this earnest, sincere wish
that truer, better life had been lived.
As in the autumn time of the year we
look up and see more clearly through the
trees as the leaves fall one by one. the blue
sky above, so in old age we look out and up.
aud are more sure than ever before Of the
over-arching love Of God. We come to
greater faith in God and surer hope of
the future; and those to whom this faith
and hope have come fall asleep secure in
the deathless assurance Of Gods love and
fatherhood which lie beyond